INsight/ Year in Review

Photo by Yair Mejía on Unsplash.

Manila, 21 December 2022 — Year in Review. What did we stop, start, and continue, with thanks to you? 

Story

It happened in 2022. For me, it has been a year filled with remarkable life stories of the leaders I worked with, who gave themselves permission to grow. Who worked to navigate through challenging transitions in their careers and lives. And who decided to grow more leaders around them. As a reader, you may be one of these leaders, or on the way to becoming one. Following the example of a friend and fellow leadership coach, let me unpack the story through the lenses of stopping, starting, and continuing.

There is good news about stopping. As we emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic, gradually, we stopped isolating and allowed ourselves to go out again to meet others physically, onsite, and in the office. And while that has made a big difference, I’m even more amazed at what I observed leaders stopping to do this year. In what were truly transformational changes, I saw how, amongst others, they managed to stop worrying and holding themselves back, to stop feeling caged by impostor syndrome, and to stop living in the details where they missed out on leading positive change in their lives and workplaces. Deeply rewarding experiences for all concerned. 

And what did we start? I’m excited about the new programs we rolled out this year that helped executives and emerging leaders work better across boundaries. Stepping out of their comfort zones, executives started engaging the Seven Ways of Inclusive Leadership in their workplaces. We also started an initiative to explore how Crossgen practices can help leaders work together more effectively with their colleagues from different generations. And we helped leaders to come together with fellow leaders across the Asia-Pacific region in Grow3Leaders, Water Academy for Youth, One Million Leaders Asia, and Young Bridging Leaders. Finally, we started many new personal relationships, mindful that leadership happens in relationships. 

Challenge

From our experiences in growing leaders this year, we learned at a deep psycho-emotional level that when it comes to leadership development, it’s engaging with challenges that makes the difference. So that’s what we continued offering in 2022, and what we will continue focusing on in the new year. Finding the main challenge to master in a leadership transition is what lies at the core of our confidential 1:1 executive leadership coaching. Similarly, dealing with challenges plays an essential role in our group coaching work, both in Grow3Leaders and in the other initiatives we support.

Continuing with our focus on leadership challenges, we are excited about turning what we learned into the LEADyear 2023 Challenge to become a Trusted Leader, which is about to open its doors. I’m grateful for the collaboration with fellow leaders in making that happen and for the enthusiastic leaders who are keen to start this challenge. To succeed in the new year, we need to gain the trust of our colleagues and clients, our bosses in our businesses and organizations and, importantly, of ourselves. Hence the Trusted Leader focus. There is much to learn together that pulls us out of our comfort zones for this challenge and will bring us greater rewards. Together.

As a leadership coach, I also marked a milestone this year. After 15 years of coaching, I’m thrilled to continue helping executives and emerging leaders bring out the best in themselves by taking on challenges. I’m thoroughly enjoying the coaching process and what it makes possible for them, and I keep learning more from my coaching experiences as well as from the latest research. Additionally, it’s rewarding to see many leaders discovering coaching as an additional style of communication that they can learn to use in their work and life. 

Question

My question for you this week is about learning from reflecting on your experiences this year. Specifically, what will you give yourself permission for in order to become a Trusted Leader in the new year? 

Looking around, there is no lack of challenges we face in our lives, our work, and our world. The question, then, is what we will do with these challenges, and how we let them shape the leader in us.

With the door about to open to the new LEADyear 2023 Challenge, we are still enjoying the personal calls with leaders about the unique results they want to achieve in the new year. To let us know, set up your free call now.